Beanpoles & Backbends

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a marathon-encuentro mixer. It was a well organised event in a beautiful city, I met a few (not many) old friends... but that‘s not what I want to write about.

This article is an instructional paper. I usually don‘t use this medium for teaching purposes. I teach in class or via my book+DVD. But the majority of people I want to reach with this information might not visit our (Detlef's and my) classes or buy our product and I don‘t want to criticise my partners during a Milonga. This is why I decided to broach the issue of „la postura“ in my blog, something that I've been wanting to do for a couple of years. Yesterday, a young lady encouraged me to do so. 
(Many, many more details about this topic can be found here.)

Anyway...

The above mentioned event was populated by lots of lovely, mostly young dancers, who come from a marathon background. They are inventive in their movements, have an interesting musicality and dance - as this is the custom nowadays - in a close(r) embrace. So you would think, that I must have enjoyed it a lot. I did, but there was also a problem: very often, my back started hurting. It did not hurt before dancing and it usually does not cause any problems at all. Yes, I am older than most of the young ladies at this event, but I am not yet that old and I do Yoga on a regular basis. I am not as bendy as a gymnast, but I manage well enough, thank you, sir!

So this post is about where I believe that the pain in my back came from.

Many marathony dancers used to dance in open embrace originally or have learned from teachers who still do or did so in the past. That is totally fine and we often also use open embrace in our classes out of pedagogical reasons. But, as we want to dance in a close embrace at a Milonga, we teach a posture, that will work out no matter which distance you choose. Please be aware, that many teachers who used to dance in open embrace don‘t. Although they might dance close embrace nowadays, they might not have updated their concept of a posture but stick to the original idea of the leader standing very upright, with the bodyweight distributed over the whole foot. Kind of an ideal everyday posture, like a perfectly upright beanpole. It might look like this:

Looks fine, doesn‘t it?
But if you use this posture in close embrace, you will "force" your partner to either lean on you or stick out her butt in order to create a chest contact and still have enough space for the feet. Because only few teachers nowadays encourage dancing „apilado“ (off axis, leaning) and most women feel uncomfortable weighing on their partners, many followers will instinctively choose option two. It allows them to keep their gravity centre above their feet. This posture might look like this:

Silly, eh?
When dancing with a partner in a close embrace, it might not look quite as crass and some even find it sexy. But I can tell you: it is not healthy. Dancing with a constant backbend compresses the vertebrae, uses a lot of muscular tension, inhibits natural dissociation and does actually interrupt the flow of the leading signals from top to down. If a communicative signal is supposed to „run through“ the axis, should it not remain unbroken?
Let us not speak about the long-terms downsides of such a posture. Many yoga teachers nowadays abstain from encouraging their students to aim for hyper-flexibility because they know about the risks of such a practise. So please keep in mind: You (or your lovely partner) will not be young forever, but you might still want to dance Tango without hurting.

Ok, everyone knows that the spine is naturally curved. Depending on your personal physique, you may see a more or less defined curve when standing upright and looking at yourself from the side. We don‘t want to work against that, e.g. by pulling the the hips downwards or even tilting them forwards. 

We just suggest that you stand straight, but shift the body weight a little more to your metatarsals. Not to the toes though, because we don‘t want to lose our balance and lean onto our partner. This little adaptation will allow you to dance in a close embrace and you will still have space for your feet. It might look like this:

The difference to the posture above is minimal, but it changes everything, because now both partners can stand upright: 
(Please don‘t tell me, that I stick out my butt as well. What you see are the natural curves of my spine and well... the rest of my body. The only way to get rid of those would be to go on a stricter diet.)

So, in my opinion, these are your options of dancing without forcing yourself or your partner into an unhealthy posture or dancing off-axis:

1. If you (as a leader) don‘t want to change your posture, because you are used to a certain form of stability by having part of your bodyweight above your heel: Fine. Keep your posture, but dance in a more open embrace. There is nothing wrong about it and it does not mean that you have to dance unsocially. You might take up a little more space in the ronda, but if you pay attention, everything will be ok. 
Look at the following video of Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne. Both of them stand very upright most of the time and open the embrace, when they need more space for their feet and legs. In any case, Giselle Anne does not have to stick out her behind. (Nevertheless: don‘t do all the stuff that they are dancing at a Milonga, please.)

2. Adapt your posture to allow for both partners to keep their spine upright. If you still don‘t know how, please work with specialised teachers.
Check out a dancing video that we made for our DVD. I have chosen it, because you can often see us from the side and the light allows for a good visibility. You can also watch an initially faulty posture changing to the better: Check out the first couple of seconds when we go into the embrace. In the beginning, Detlef is standing with his body weight a little bit too much towards his heels. His mistake! In order to create a connection, I then break my axis and lean my upper body towards him. I should not have done that, but maintained my posture and therefore show him how to position himself, as I tell our students. My mistake!
Fortunately (whilst already being in the embrace) Detlef also shifts his weight to the front of his feet and all of a sudden, my posture is good again. Both of our axes remain upright throughout most of the dance and we‘ve got enough space for our feet. (We don‘t claim to be perfect though.)

3. Grow a Milonguero belly! The belly will keep your partner further away, so that you have got enough space for the feet. If the follower is shorter than you (only then!), she will even find a nice soft spot to make contact to with her upper body without having to bend. 
Look at the following video by Tete - in particular the moment when he and Sylvia go into the embrace. By the way: Tete was a famous dancer and teacher who, like most Milongueros of that era answered „Tango de Salón“ when someone asked him, what style he danced. But that is yet another story...

So, cheers to the Milonguero belly!

Edit: 

Please note that I don't want to put all the blame on the leaders. There are many, many things that followers can do to put themselves into a disadvantageous position or to hurt the leaders. This post concentrates one one particular feature of the leader's posture and the consequences for the followers, because I have experienced this situation to a larger extent and I believe it to be a typical problem of recent developments.

If you want to work on the details of your posture and connection, I encourage you to buy our book+DVD. ;-)

Life in 2015 - personal, promotional and potentially boring post

Here I am again. Or let's say: here I am finally. My last post was in January this year, far too long ago. I really wanted to write more, but I did not find the time. Really.

This is why.

My original plan for 2015 was to work less, which is why Detlef and I did not accept as many invitations as in the past years: we scheduled two-thirds of our usual workload of workshops and festivals. I wanted to finally have time to lead a normal life, think about possible post-tango-occupations, make plans for new projects and - on the side - write a book and produce a film: Caminar Abrazados.

Yeah, right...

I of course underestimated the work on the book and DVD a lot and ended up working more than before: Writing the script, organising the set and co-workers, filming, preparing and supervising the editing process, writing the book, choosing photos, drawing charts and graphics, discussing text and layout with my co-workers, preparing the printing and publication with our editor, publicity, setting up the new website and shop, then managing the sales... All of this was quite a feat besides managing the regular teaching and tours from my desk, as well as actually traveling and teaching. I don‘t recall one single day in the last eight months without work. Add many nights in front of the computer or lying in bed, trying to solve problems in the head. Now I am catching up with work that had to be postponed: We even had to delay the start of our next teacher training (TTT), as I did not get around to set the dates and start the promotion earlier. So the next group will start in early 2016. Until then, we also plan on publishing the german and french editions of the Caminar Abrazados. 

I guess that 2015 will end as crazy as it started.

When it comes to work.

Because, apart from work, I am actually leading a very normal non-tango-life with my non-tango-boyfriend: spending lots of time at home in front of my computer, working out, cooking (or mostly: eating meals that have been cooked for me), watching TV-series, meeting non-tango-friends. Sounds quite ordinary, doesn‘t it?

Well, it is not. Fate decided to give me a talented photographer as partner, whom I got involved into our Tango business right away. So Thorsten Janes took over the filming, photographing, editing and layout of Caminar Abrazados, which meant that he became part of my work-life as well. He occasionally accompanies us on our teaching gigs or to an Encuentro. He even got his first engagement as the official photographer of a Tango event, the lovely Festivalito Rural in Slovenia. So, although he does not dance Tango, my sweetheart got to know everything about it, most of my tango friends, lots of Milongas and events. Which sounds potentially complicated, but is surprisingly easy. He obviously gets along fine and as an artist likes watching the dancers or talking to people. Just recently, I went to bed before the end of a Milonga and he stayed. I don‘t know what to make of that. ;-)

You can tell that a lot has changed in my life. Although I am surrounded by Tango every day - writing, thinking, analysing, listening to, organising Tango - I am much less exposed to teaching and even less to dancing. As you know, I almost never visit Milongas in my hometown and dance quite little during teaching engagements - mostly to keep up my working capacities or because I am the DJ. That is fairly normal for me, but in other years, there were still more opportunities to really dance, as I was visiting events for fun or teaching at Festivalitos, where I - despite the fatigue - dance quite a lot. But this year, as a result of the project, I did also not have the time/energy/financial-means to drive to Milongas in the region or visit Encuentros, so I ended up practically not dancing in 2015. This year, I have been dancing on five (5!) occasions, all of them being Encuentros/Festivalitos, four of them being teaching engagements. It's a shame. (And I possibly should not write about this, as it will encourage people to doubt my qualification as a teacher.)

The first Tangos on each of these occasions felt very weird, because I feared that I might have unlearned dancing. Turns out it is like driving a bike: you get into it very quickly after a few steps. Although my partners might have felt differently about that. They claimed that everything was fine, but maybe they were just being polite. 

In any case, I never thought that I would say this: I miss dancing. Last week, Detlef went to the Festivalito Porteño in Romania. I stayed at home and envied him a lot, knowing that the rest of the year will not pose many more occasions to dance. I reckon two or three.

This has to change in 2016! I don‘t know how, but I will have to try and visit some more international Encuentros or milongas in our greater region or move to a city where I can actually visit local milongas.

I also would like to find some more time to write my blog. There are several articles in my head that want to be written. 

But in order to be able to do so, I have to do some more work. Back to it now.